A man drunk on demonic delusions

"Inside the New Age Nightmare" is written by a former New Age leader who converted to Christian fundamentalism. (He is now deceased.)

The first part of the book (chapters 1 - 3) is quite interesting, at least from some kind of ethnological perspective. Baer seems to have been involved in a wide range of New Age pursuits, some of them quite bizarre, and describes them in some detail.

For instance, he attended a "vision quest" in the wilderness of Utah, which turned out to be a crack course in hard core survivalism. Baer also practiced Silva Mind Control, apparently a powerful meditation technique which induces very vivid hallucinations. Naturally, he also experimented with hallucinogenic drugs. Later, the author visited some religious cults (surprisingly charitably described in the book), was tortured by a quack during an alternative therapy session, and hooked up with the UFO subculture. Baer also had time to meet a self-proclaimed Messiah, who was easier than usual to expose.

More disturbingly, Baer believed that the Great White Brotherhood and the Intergalactic Space Federation were talking through the mouth of his wife, Vicki. (An obvious delusion. Take it from me!)

It also turns out that Baer was one of the people behind the "crystal craze" of the 1980's. He wrote several books on the subject, and became a leading spokesperson for the New Age in the process.

What struck me when reading these chapters were three things. First, the large number of well-educated and seemingly normal people involved in this movement, its commercial character and the apparent success of it. Second, the ease with which Baer accepted even the most outlandish aspects of New Age. Visions, talking to spirits, being taken by angels to remote parts of the universe...all this seems to have been second nature to this author. Third, his conversion to Christian fundamentalism simply replaced one form of extreme spirituality with another form. Instead of out-of-body experiences every night, he now felt the presence of Jesus every day. Christianity became his ultimate high. As a New Age believer, Baer had waited for an apocalypse involving space ships. After conversion, he simply changed this to a near-imminent Christian apocalypse, complete with the Antichrist. And just as he had swallowed the entire New Age concept hook, line and sinker, he now accepted even the most extreme Christian ideas. Baer came to believe, as a matter of course, that all New Age supporters would end up in a literal Hell at the speedy return of Jesus!

The rest of the book is less interesting. It includes a more encyclopedic overview of the New Age movement, criticizes its commercialism and liberal values, and laments its influence on pop culture. The book ends with a very short outline of the differences between New Age and the form of Christianity embraced by the author.

This is not really an important book. However, the first part might take you through a boring train trip or something. But yes, it does raise a lot of questions about the psychological make up of a certain kind of seekers. Baer might indeed have been drunk on "demonic" delusions. But was he ever freed of them? That's the question.